Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa has been released from prison and sent into exile along with 18 imprisoned churchmen as the Nicaraguan government expelled its most prominent critic, whose presence behind bars bore witness to the Sandinista regime descent into totalitarianism, along with its unrelenting persecution of the Catholic Church.
Following the latest round of arrests of Catholic leaders in Nicaragua and the continued imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami has said the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega has gone “off the rails.”
The U.S. Department of State has demanded the release of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa and other imprisoned Nicaraguan religious leaders following a wave of detentions targeting Catholic clergy over the Christmas season.
Since Christmas, Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries have detained more than a dozen priests, including an archdiocesan vicar, as the Sandinista regime escalates a campaign of terror against the Catholic Church — an institution it has struggled to subdue.
Imprisoned Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez appeared unexpectedly on Nicaraguan television March 24, more than six weeks after refusing to be exiled from his country, opting instead to face his sentence of 26 years behind bars.
A U.S. House hearing March 22 examined what it called Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s anti-Catholic persecution and called for action, just days after the Vatican said it closed its embassy in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua’s assaults on Catholic and other educational institutions, its stripping political opponents of citizenship, and its arrest of political opponents must stop, said Human Rights Watch’s acting executive director, Tirana Hassan.
In what is the latest move to suppress the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, the government has rescinded the legal status and seized the assets of the nation’s Caritas branches and two Catholic universities, essentially shutting them down.
Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa was convicted and sentenced by a Nicaraguan court to 26 years in prison Feb. 10 — barely a day after the outspoken prelate defied President Daniel Ortega by refusing to go into exile.
An auxiliary bishop who fled his native Nicaragua after facing down death threats for criticizing that country’s totalitarian government was at St. Brigid Church in Bushwick on Jan. 8, helping the largely Latino community there celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.
